LRO Photo Of Apollo 11 Landing Site Is The Most Detailed Ever

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken the most detailed photo of the Apollo 11 landing site ever seen. Apollo 11 is the famous mission of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin that landed the first two people on the surface of the moon in history. The highly detailed photo shows some impressively minute details of the landing site on the Sea of Tranquility.

The photo is so clear that you can see little things such as the camera the astronauts placed, a discarded cover from the Laser Ranging RetroReflector, and the astronaut's footsteps among other things. The cover from that reflector is interesting to see, that is an experiment that allows precise measurements to be collected from the moon and is still used to this day.

The LRO took the photo from a height of 15 miles above the moon surface and the image was released this month. I always thought that the area Armstrong and Aldrin explored was large. Apparently, it was smaller than a city block and only later missions were allowed to explore broader areas. The LRO has captured images of other Apollo landing sites as well.

[via Space.com]